Opioid Addiction Knows No Color, but Its Treatment Does

In New York City, opioid addiction treatment is sharply segregated by income, according to addiction experts and an analysis of demographic data provided by the city health department. More affluent patients can avoid the methadone clinic entirely, receiving a new treatment directly from a doctor’s office. Many poorer Hispanic and black individuals struggling with drug addiction must rely on these highly regulated clinics, which they must visit daily to receive their plastic cup of methadone.

 Some states add more methadone clinics to fight opioid epidemic

Despite a national drumbeat for more science-based treatment for people addicted to prescription painkillers, heroin and other illicit opioids, the expansion of methadone clinics has mostly gone unheralded. Unlike buprenorphine, which can be prescribed by specially licensed practitioners and taken orally at home, or injectable Vivitrol, which can be administered by any doctor, methadone must be doled out daily at highly regulated and often very visible clinics.

 There's a Gold-Standard Treatment for Opioid Addiction One of America's Top Killers. What Keeps Treatment Centers From Using It?

But unlike pills and heroin, methadone lingers for a long time in the body, helping to alleviate cravings and compulsive drug-seeking—the need to fill the hole. At the right dose, it doesn't produce a high; it's meant to give people the brain space they need to stabilize their lives and focus on therapy. A regimen of therapy plus methadone—or one of two other Food and Drug Administration-approved medications, buprenorphine and naltrexone—is considered the gold standard for opioid addiction treatment. Studies show that, compared to getting no medicines, methadone and buprenorphine keep people in treatment for longer and reduce how much they cheat with illicit opioids. The medicines also save lives: Compared to getting no treatment, methadone can cut death rates by 75 percent.

One of Medicine's Best-Kept Secrets: Methadone Works

''The safety and efficacy of methadone in the treatment of narcotic addiction have been documented more extensively than any other medication in the pharmacopeia,'' said Dr. Robert G. Newman, president of Beth Israel Medical Center.

There’s a highly successful treatment for opioid addiction. But stigma is holding it back.

Medication-assisted treatment is often called the gold standard of addiction care. But much of the country has resisted it.

Access to Maintenance Medications for Opioid Addiction Is Expanding. Prisons Need to Get on Board.

Leaving a jail or prison is a particularly risky time for opioid users, due to lower tolerance and the increased prevalence of fentanyl.

Canada sees dramatic rise in methadone patients as the opioid crisis worsens

VICE News obtained statistics that reveal soaring numbers of methadone patients in recent years, and provide a glimpse into how much health ministries are being billed for it.

Countering the Myths About Methadone

Methadone maintenance has been used in the United States for approximately 50 years as an effective treatment for opioid addiction. Yet many myths about its use persist, discouraging patients from using methadone, and leading family members to pressure patients using the treatment to stop.

In Opioid Epidemic, Prejudice Persists Against Methadone

Despite an escalating opioid-addiction epidemic, methadone clinics still meet stiff opposition from many state and local governments.

In Opioid Epidemic, Prejudice Persists Against Methadone

Despite the nation’s decadelong surge in opioid addiction, large swaths of the U.S. still lack specialized opioid treatment centers that can dispense methadone, one of three medications available to treat addiction to heroin and prescription pain pills. The other two medications, buprenorphine (approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2002) and Vivitrol (approved in 2010), can be prescribed by doctors. But for some patients, particularly those who have built up a high tolerance for opioids through prolonged use or high doses, methadone can be the only addiction medication that works.

Life Outside a Methadone Clinic, or Getting Clean from Heroin

This post is part of a collaborative narrative series composed of my writing and Chris Arnade’s photos exploring issues of addiction, poverty, prostitution and urban anthropology in Hunts Point, Bronx.

Liquid handcuffs

Ask the old hands what they think about the methadone maintenance program in Australia 40 years in and you’ll hear a good deal of pragmatism. “It’s like the electricity bill. You want light at the flick of a switch, you’ve got to sign up and pay for it. Simple as.”

Methadone Mythbusters: Do People Use Methadone to Get High?

First, it’s true: some people use methadone to get high. It’s a synthetic opioid with mild sedative and euphoric properties similar to other opioids. But those properties are far less intense than in common opioids of abuse such as Oxycontin, Fentanyl, or heroin. There’s a black market for methadone. People buy, sell, and use methadone illegally. This activity occurs outside the purview methadone clinics regulated by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and other local and federal agencies. No one disputes that.

Russell Brand: methadone is a bad way to treat heroin addicts

Brand has become a high-profile advocate for the need to treat addicts through rehabilitation programmes, with the ultimate aim of making them drug-free.

Weekly Dose: methadone, the most effective treatment for heroin dependence

Methadone treatment is one of the most frequently evaluated interventions in medicine. The World Health Organisation and other UN bodies with a major responsibility for illicit drugs policy have endorsed the treatment.